The Fifth Sunday After Pentecost ----- 24 June 2018

Job 38:1-11

The Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind:

"Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?

Gird up your loins like a man,
I will question you, and you shall declare to me.

"Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me, if you have understanding.

Who determined its measurements—surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?

On what were its bases sunk,
or who laid its cornerstone

when the morning stars sang together
and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy?

"Or who shut in the sea with doors
when it burst out from the womb?—

when I made the clouds its garment,
and thick darkness its swaddling band,

and prescribed bounds for it,
and set bars and doors,

and said, 'Thus far shall you come, and no farther,
and here shall your proud waves be stopped'?"

Mark 4:35-41

When evening had come, Jesus said to his disciples, “Let us go across to the other side.” And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

·       If you’ve ever wondered about the choices of readings that are read at the Sunday worship service, here’s a clue. The first reading and the Gospel reading are usually on the same theme or share something similar, whether it is theme, message, or wording.

·       In the reading from Job, the Lord comes to answer Job’s complaints and speaks out of a whirlwind. In the reading from the Gospel of Mark, Jesus calms a terrible whirlwind on the Sea of Galilee with a simple word of command. It is the setting – the storm with the presence of God – that is the similarity.

·       We know the story of Job. A just man, a man without sin is afflicted with loss of family, property, and livelihood as a test. The reason for this book is something for a later date or a Bible study. For most of the story, he argues with three friends who assume Job is being punished for sins. Job holds to his innocence and in the end, demands that God face him as if they were in court. God appears in a whirlwind and basically asks “Who do you think you are, Job?” The translation we use catches the Hebrew well – “Who is this…?” If we were to read this to the end of the book, we’d see that Job ends up without answers and is faced with nothing less than the mystery of God.

·       In the Gospel, a storm come up as Jesus and his disciples are crossing the Sea of Galilee in a few small boats. The disciples (who are fishermen for the most part, remember, and should be used to that body of water) feel they are going to sink and ask Jesus if he cares whether they live or die.

·       If you’ve ever been caught outside in a tremendous storm, you understand the fear and the terror the disciples endured. It is that terror that is the hinge of the entire reading.

·       The disciples are made even more fearful by Jesus’ command that calms the storm. Our reading says they were filled with great awe, a phrase that doesn’t quite express what they felt. The original says they were nothing less than terrified! (They feared a great fear.)The teacher they thought they knew has shown himself to be far, far more than they imagined. Jesus has done the unexpected, not just healing the sick or exorcising demons, but calming the fury of a tremendous storm with a word. The disciples are terrified not only because of the action, but because they are faced with someone they realize they really don’t know.

·       These two readings place us in the middle of the mystery of God at work in the world. The book of Job tells us of our littleness in the face of the greatness of God, who asks Job "Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?” We are also faced with the mystery of God’s ultimate will and purpose for the actions within the created universe. Like Job, we don’t know such things as the pillars of the world or the working of the mysterious oceans. We only know that they are there.

·       Jesus’ stilling of the storm shows his power over creation to an extent that is not shown in the healings and exorcisms the disciples have seen. A saint or a person blessed by God could possibly do those things, but stilling a storm… that’s beyond what even a saint could do. So to be in the presence of this person who exhibits such divine power would be mysterious and terrifying. The disciples asked one another “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

·       We then are left with the lesson of Job that God is beyond our understanding and the Gospel message that in Jesus such power is with us and around us, not in the storm or the whirlwind but in the words and the person of Jesus. He is God-with-us, mystery and all.

·       Will we know terror? In the face of the greatest of all mysteries, it’s possible. We can remember though, that all revelations in the Gospels begin with the words “Do not be afraid.”

And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”